The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is keeping Swedish tourists at bay, news agency TT reports, even from African nations that have no known cases of the deadly tropical disease.
Swedish tour operator Ving recently cancelled trips to Gambia because of too few bookings, although the country has no known cases of infection.
Meanwhile competitor Apollo is launching trips to Senegal this winter, where one case of Ebola has so far been identified.
“We have decided to continue with the trips, there is no advice against it from the foreign ministry and we are in contact with the authorities both there and here,” Apollo spokeswoman Kajsa Moström told news agency TT. “However, it may be that we’ll cancel departures because of low demand, due to Ebola.”
Tourism to Africa has increased in recent years, and in many places has become an important engine of growth, said Mats Utas, a researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute.
Sweden’s foreign ministry has advised against all travel to the Ebola-hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. But travel to other countries poses a small risk of contracting the virus.
Source: Radio Sweden
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